Giants Have a Real Blast / Johnson drills homer in 9th to top Rockies

Nancy Gay, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, September 25, 1997

1997-09-25 04:00:00 PDT Denver -- There wasn't much hand-wringing following the Giants' latest ninth-inning miracle. Brian Johnson had delivered another game-winner, a towering, 429-foot home run that caught thin air and almost cleared the left-field bleachers at Coors Field. Roberto Hernandez shut down the hard-hitting Rockies in the bottom of the ninth, and the magic number slipped to two after the Dodgers lost.

Mark it 4-3, Giants, and situate it among the lengthy list of comeback victories (45 of them). Note that it was the 23rd time this storybook season they've won a game in their last at-bat. Be advised that tomorrow could be a time of city-wide celebration, for the Giants could nail down the division in front of their title-hungry fans. "We're well aware that other teams are clinching and they're celebrating at home," said Johnson, who lifted a good down-and-in fastball from Rockies reliever Steve Reed for his second game-breaking home run in a week. "Every baseball player on the earth would like to be in that locker room situation where you could enjoy it, pour champagne on everybody, act stupid."

Actually, the Giants got a head start on that yesterday. The breaks were theirs; all the gappers and wild caroms were scoring their runners and frustrating Colorado. Emergency starter Pat Rapp, whose duties had shrunk to the point where he was almost an asterisk, came through with a stout performance -- three runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings.

The pressure was off for another day, so it was safe to call on an old tradition. Sometime in the late innings, the veterans stole into the clubhouse, swiped the rookies' travel clothes and substituted mismatched, gawd-awful outfits that wouldn't normally be seen outside a rave party.

Doug Mirabelli, the poor reserve catcher dressed in the bright orange balloon pants, looked like a flamenco dancer and was razzed unmercifully by the group. Would the stunt have happened if the margin had shrunk again?

Probably not. But the mood this day was too perfect. "We're just proud of the fact that when you go to San Diego for four (games) and here for two, we're going home 4-2 off this road trip," said manager Dusty Baker, whose team finished with a regular-season road record of 42-39. "And we accomplished everything we wanted to accomplish today."

The Rockies, who were officially eliminated from postseason consideration, are darn near bulletproof in their mile-high playground. But the fine showing by Rapp was more proof that this is a team that excels by the sum of its parts.

"A bulldog's a bulldog, whether he goes out there once a week or every day," said Baker.

Rapp fully agreed. "That was my job, to keep us close, and I kept us close. The bullpen came in and shut the door pretty much and we came through in the last inning," he said.

Hernandez opened the eighth by getting a break from plate umpire Mike Winters. He incorrectly called his outside two-seam fastball strike three; Larry Walker, by many accounts the most deserving MVP candidate, stood his ground and angrily waved off the call as he walked away. "You know what? It was a ball," said Hernandez, who pitched the ninth, in part, because his spot didn't come up to hit. "But that's how the breaks were for us today.

Barry Bonds was a step or two away from another inside-the-park home run in the first inning when he smacked a liner into the right- field corner. The ball bounced around, eluding Walker, and Bonds easily made it to third. Jeff Kent finished the deed, driving Bonds home with a single to left.

The Rockies responded immediately with Ellis Burks' one-out homer, and they took the lead in the third on Walker's RBI double -- his 46th two-base hit of the season. He scored on Andres Galarraga's sacrifice fly for a 3-1 Colorado lead.

J.T. Snow picked up his 100th RBI with his leadoff homer in the fourth, and posted No. 101 with his two-out triple to right in the eighth, another bad bouncer in the corner that scored Bonds and tied the game.

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Then it was in Johnson's hands, and his 11th home run was so majestic, even he was impressed. "That one was pretty much (gone) . . . it's just ecstasy, really," Johnson said. "You watch the ball go and say, 'Wow, I got enough of it.' "

Like his teammates, he paused to watch it fly. With it, the Giants' season continued to soar.

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